Detective Comics #18

Issue Details

Synopsis

RETURN TO ROOST At the Gotham City Zoo, Oswald Cobblepot collects a cache of weapons he has hidden there, and begins his journey back to the Iceberg Casino for revenge. Emperor Penguin is expecting this, and intends to show the Penguin that he is not as untouchable as he thinks.   Earlier that evening, Batman had returned to Arkham Asylum to clean up the mess that was left by the Joker's latest plan. Cobblepot was there, having been brought there against his will by the Joker. Regardless of his lack of complicity in the Joker's plot, Batman had every intention of sending him to Blackgate Penitentiary. Unfortunately, as the Penguin pointed out, he did not have the evidence he needed to make any charges stick. As the Penguin left the asylum, Aaron Cash warned Batman that Victor Zsasz had escaped.   At Wayne Manor, Bruce reflected on the threat of having another insane killer on the loose in Gotham City, and the senseless violence that would soon occur. The same kind of senseless violence that had only recently robbed him of his only son.   Cobblepot, meanwhile, returned to his house to find a gang of thugs sitting outside his estate. Though they admitted that the house belonged to the Penguin, they insisted that he was not the Penguin, and sent him away. Soon, Ogilvy received an angry call from Cobblepot, wondering just what was going on. Ogilvy explained that he had taken everything from the Penguin, and introduced himself as Emperor Penguin as Cobblepot spewed death-threats from his end of the line. After hanging up, the Penguin looked up to see that the children's center he had stolen from Bruce Wayne to name for his own mother had been stolen from him, and named for Ann Ogilvy - his former right-hand man's mother.   Despite Zsasz' escape, Batman found that Gotham's streets were rather quiet, and awaited the police calls reporting the madman's murders. When he finally heard the murder report come through, he was surprised by a second report of shots fired at the Iceberg Casino, and decided that now was the time to bring an end to Cobblepot's crimes.   Now, Batman crashes through the ceiling in time to catch Penguin in the act of shooting his way to Ogilvy's office. Penguin claims he is untouchable, but Batman points out that he has evidence of Penguin storing weapons at the zoo - which is municipal land. He broke into a storage container in order to retrieve that cache. He has evidence of trespassing, breaking and entering, illegal arms possession, and maybe even vandalism. Meanwhile, the lawyers that Cobblepot has been threatening to unleash should he be caught were only just murdered by Mister Zsasz. Soon, the GCPD arrives and places Cobblepot under arrest with charges that will stick. This, though, is all in exact accordance with Emperor Penguin's plans.   Later, Emperor Penguin has a meeting with Anya Volkova, a defector from the League of Assassins, who has stolen for him the precious Man-Bat Serum from Talia al Ghul. A CUT ABOVE During the Joker's reign in Arkham Asylum, Victor Zsasz finds himself able to satisfy his ongoing need to kill - and his need to record those murders by making a cut into his own skin. In the melee of the asylum's outbreak, Zsasz spots the Penguin, and is forced into a memory.   He once had been gambling at the Iceberg Casino, and his streak of bad luck had thus far caused him to nearly lose the entirety of the fortune he inherited from his parents' successful Zsasz Industries - which the Penguin was eager to facilitate. When the man has lost everything, even his own assets, the Penguin threw him out. When he had begged for some kind of mercy, Cobblepot simply told him "that's life," and suggested that he kill himself.   Now, Zsasz corners the man who ruined him, and relishes the thought of being able to take everything away from him. Before he can claim the Penguin's life, the Joker appears and warns that he still has plans for the Penguin. Instead, he suggests that Zsasz go out into Gotham City and do what he does best.   Ogilvy, meanwhile, spotted Zsasz escaping, and approaches him in the street, offering him the gift of a nearly two-hundred-year-old knife. He explains that they both have a desire to hurt Oswald Cobblepot, and he can facilitate that. Grinning, Zsasz takes the blade as his own.